


I wanna teach you a lesson (in the worst kind of way)

by PoemIsDead



Series: this world has too much noise [1]
Category: Markiplier Egos, Video Blogging RPF, jacksepticeye egos - Fandom
Genre: Alpha Antisepticeye, Alpha Darkiplier, Alpha/Alpha, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Blow Jobs, Getting Together, Hand Jobs, Kinda, M/M, Slow Burn, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Violence, also teeth porn, anti trusts dark exactly none, anti's kind of a dick, because it's good for you, but that's because he's repressed af, dark shuts his fucking mouth for once, late night staring competition makeouts are hot okay, no beta we die like men, the struggles of two alphas being alphas, which is fair
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:39:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28865664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoemIsDead/pseuds/PoemIsDead
Summary: "The Omega not to your tastes?""FuckingChrist," Anti spat, only barely not spilling his drink as he jerked to look at the booth next to him, where Mr. Spice-and-Gunsmoke was leaning back and watching him like that was a totally normal thing to do. "Youtryin'to be creepy as all shite?"The man hooked a crooked smile, and that did somethinginterestingto his eyes. "Not particularly.""Well, congrats, you're a natural," Anti scoffed, and then slipped into the booth because fuck it. He needed a place to set his drink.
Relationships: Antisepticeye & Marvin the Magnificent (Jacksepticeye Power Hour), Danti, Darkiplier/Antisepticeye
Series: this world has too much noise [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116839
Comments: 51
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's been more than a year since I finished something, and the writer's block is killing me. So I'm taking a break from picking away at my current projects to write this thing that's been living in my head rent free for about three years now. It's fully planned, gonna try to write out this first installment quickly and then get back at my other works and see if the euphoria of actually posting something can fuel everything else.
> 
> Seriously though, I've wanted to write this thing for _so long_ , and writing it is actually fun, and I'm really happy to get to share it with y'all finally ;___;

"For the record, this does not look fun," Anti said, scowling up at the big glass building.

The night had settled in good and proper, and the bright spotlights lighting up the front of the pretentious building made the sky look jet black, the glass and white stone a harsh contrast. Anti gave it a thorough glare, curling his lip in distaste as he watched the pretty people inside mingling through the myriad of windows.

"You don't have to come in, you know," Marvin groused next to him, tugging at his billowy shirt with nervous fingers. "You could just go hang out somewhere else. Or just drop me off, I'm sure I'll find a ride home."

"Yeah, no. That's literally just a sea of knotheads in there, I can smell them from here. You'd be like chum in the water."

"Oh my god, they're not sharks."

"You work at a strip club, you know that's exactly what they are."

Marvin scowled down at his pretty blouse, tugging the loose strings and looking uncomfortable. "These aren't the same kind of people."

Except Anti had been working at the Red Room Executive Club for long enough to know that these were those _exact_ kinds of people. He was paid to find them in the crowd, to make sure they didn't cause problems. And even from here, he could tell there were people here who could cause problems.

"Yeah, Mav. They are."

Marvin frowned, looking up nervously at the building, glancing at Anti before he took a deep breath.

"Half an hour," he said firmly, barely burying the plea. "An hour tops. I've just gotta find him and mingle for a bit, and then we can leave, okay?"

Anti pursed his lips, biting back the scathing response. He knew Marvin was desperate for this. For the opportunity the man they'd come to see represented. For the chance to get out of the life Marvin had been stuck in for the past four years. Anti knew that offers like this rarely came without strings, were rarely as good as they sounded on paper, but hell, it wasn't really his place to be telling Marvin how to live his life.

If he wanted to be disappointed again, who was he to stop him?

"Fine, yeah, whatever. Let's go find your Prince Charming."

Marvin shot him a look, but headed off towards the open front door without another word, and Anti followed him like the loyal puppy dog Marvin liked to pretend he was.

  


* * *

  


Walking into the Third Annual Bingham Gala was functionally the same as walking into the Red Room on a Friday afternoon. Sure, the set dressings were different, the people here were wearing different shoes and different kinds of scent blockers. But at the end of the day it was still a room full of entitled Alphas posturing at each other and at the selection of eye candy Omegas dotted around the rooms.

Which, of course, meant their entrance garnered all kinds of unwanted attention.

The scent of a fresh, young Omega wafting into the room turned more than a few heads, and not all of them had a sense of basic restraint it seemed. A young Alpha in a sharp cut suit and a severe-looking ponytail hardly even bothered to hide her obvious interest as they walked past her group, sharp blue eyes following the sway to Marvin's step with a hunger than bordered on unsightly.

Anti stepped up easily, slipping his hand comfortably into the small of Marvin's back and offering the girl a smile that flashed too much canine to really be friendly. She was young, though, hardly past her first few ruts, and Anti was more than happy to let her faux pas slide in return for her pretty blush as she ducked her head, chagrined.

The next Alpha to fall for Marvin's hips, though - a broad-shouldered middle-aged man with at least a head over Anti and an arrogance to go with it - was much less endearing, and much more annoying to get rid of.

"Yeah, nothing like the Red Room in here," Anti snorted as he watched Mr. I'd-Love-To-Show-You-What-These-Arms-Can-Do-Wink-Wink guy wandering back to his group.

"You know I can deal with them myself," Marvin snipped, tugging at his shirt again, like he was worried it wasn't billowing enough.

"Oh, I know," Anti said. And he did. Marvin was more than capable of taking care of himself - a trait that had attracted Anti to the Omega in the first place. But- "But I really don't feel like sitting here for the next hour while you politely wordy word your way out of their slobbering."

"Well, I'm sorry my canines aren't as impressive as yours."

Anti _tsk_ ed but didn't bother answering, running his tongue over one of his pointed teeth and following Marvin as he led them farther back towards some of the quieter, more intimate lounging rooms.

"Do you smell him?" Marvin asked as they stepped into a dim room that smelled like cigar smoke and content Alpha, standing on his tiptoes as he tried to look out across the scattering of cozy loveseats and private booths.

"He's a Beta, Mav. He smells like plastic and basic-bitch cologne at best."

"Well, do you smell plastic and basic-bitch cologne?"

Anti rolled his eyes, catching sight of a small group in a far corner as he did and nodding in their direction. "He's over there."

Marvin whipped around to look, curly hair wafting a spike of excited Omega in its wake that had a passing Alpha giving them a brief glance. Anti gave the man a short curl of his lip, before looking back to find Marvin was already halfway across the room, hair and shirt billowing behind him like a shitty perfume commercial.

By the time he'd caught up, Marvin had reached the group, offering the young, sharp-eyed Beta they'd come to see a broad smile.

"Hey Google."

Google studied Marvin through black, rectangular glasses that only served to accentuate his unnaturally bright blue eyes. There was something about the way the Beta looked at you that could cut you down at the knees, no matter your designation, and Anti had a certain amount of appreciation for that too. It meant that even sitting at a table with what looked like three Alphas and his Omegan brother, there was no question of who was in charge of this meeting.

"Marvin," the Beta offered back, in a voice easily mistaken for a monotone, not even bothering to acknowledge Anti. That was the other thing about Google - he didn't bother with social niceties or fake smiles. You knew if he was mad, but otherwise, he might as well have been an android.

How he had taken any kind of interest in Marvin was a mystery to Anti, but to each their own, he supposed.

"How was the convention?" Marvin asked, taking the seat Google offered next to him. Anti didn't bother finding a spot to squeeze in on the couches, instead hooking his foot into a nearby chair and dragging it over to flip around and sit the wrong way on, legs straddling the back. He wasn't intending to stick around long enough to find something more comfortable.

He'd agreed to go with Marvin in the first place as hardly more than a guard dog, an Alpha escort to make sure no archaic-minded knothead had decided to whisk away the pretty little unmated Omega. But he really couldn't care less about the actual meeting. Google was already droning on about whatever tech convention he'd gone to the previous weekend, bitching about some idiot or another, and Anti honestly found him to be one of the most _boring_ people he'd ever had the misfortune of meeting.

But he understood why Marvin hung around him. One, he was rich, duh. Some sci-fi whiz or something, one of the youngest to graduate from some school with some degree, and rocking a staggering salary out of his prestigious position at some tech company. Which led into, two, he was smart. And Marvin did like 'em smart. The Omega himself was wicked intelligent when he wanted to be, and he was obviously _dying_ for some kind of intelligent conversation after the offal he suffered through with the club's usual patronage.

Not that Anti thought it was a _good_ pairing. Google wanted Marvin for some product he was working on, and seemed to be indicating he might want more out of the Omega as well, offering not only a business opportunity, but a life opportunity as well.

Anti had been around the robotic guy enough times to feel like he had a pretty good grasp on him, and he was almost certain this was going to end in some serious disappointment at the end of the day. But hey, he wasn't Marvin's keeper. He could figure that out on his own.

In the meantime, Anti really didn't have much to do besides wait and watch. And since Google was less interesting than a piece of wet cardboard on the sidewalk, Anti tucked his chin over the back of the chair and turned to assessing the rest of the group seated at the Beta's nook.

One of the Alphas he'd met a few times before - a well-built young man named Jay with a crooked smile and a scent like oil and gasoline. Apparently, he'd been friends with Google since their college days, which somehow gave him a free pass to follow Google everywhere, despite being dumb as bricks. And next to him was Bing, Google's Omega brother, who was probably around the same intellectual level, but half as likable, a bro-jock of the particular flavor that used "dude" and "bro" the way other people used commas. And then there was an Alpha woman he knew he'd met once before, because he knew her paper and ink scent, despite not remembering her sharp gray eyes or bleach-blond hair.

The third Alpha, though, was a complete stranger to him. He was on the far couch, a cushion away from Miss More-Interested-In-Her-Phone, arm thrown over the back of the couch as he looked out across the room with a closed expression. And Anti was absolutely certain he'd never seen him before because, one, he was sure he would have remembered that heady gunsmoke and spice scent, and two, because the guy was wearing the kind of suit that either said "I'm bred from money" or "I'm mafia" and Anti always made a point to take note of those types. The kind who didn't need to get their hands dirty, but were more than happy to dirty yours.

Which was a shame, because Anti really wouldn't mind seeing those hands a little dirtied. He had that kind of build that was meant for weight, broad shoulders and thick arms, a touch of softness that said he wasn't shedding fat, just gaining muscle, and _those_ were the kinds of guys that could really throw you around if they wanted to. Anti had put enough chiseled Alphas on their asses at the Red Room to know a danger build when he saw it, and this guy would scream danger if he wasn't wearing the kind of suit that probably cost more than Anti's car.

Anti didn't realize he was outright staring until the man's eyes cut to him, catching him red-handed with a sharp look that threw him a little more than he had expected. There was a moment of coldness, a wall of that hard, arrogant Alpha-meets-Alpha attitude, but that rolled almost seamlessly into some kind of quiet appraisal, a quick trace down Anti's posture straddling his chair, and a subtle, crooked smirk.

And that had Anti's hackles up in no time.

Because Anti wasn't an idiot. He knew he was small, smaller than most Alphas, with a slighter build and a pretty face. He was easy to dismiss as a Beta, or even an Omega if you wanted to blatantly ignore the other markers, and he'd spent most of his post-puberty days establishing his identity with fists and teeth as needed. "Non-threatening", that's what they'd called him when he'd first presented. The perfect option for someone looking for a soft Alpha.

Anti spent a lot of time dispelling that notion. Nothing about him was soft, and he had no interest in playing the role of the gentleman just because his body happened to fit that model.

Luckily, he found, he was really, _really_ good at putting other Alphas in their place.

Of course, this really wasn't the place to be doing that, if he could avoid it. Not when Marvin was trying to play nice with their host. So instead, Anti just returned the asshole's smile, wide, showing off his larger-than-average canines before turning away from the man like he was the least interesting of the group, despite his companions being muscle-child 1 and 2, Snooty Booty, and the captain of the chess team.

Muscle-child #2, the surprisingly well-built Omega who was currently looking about as bored as one could expect from someone stuck with Google most of their life, happened to look up just then, shockingly warm honey eyes glazing over him for a second before he seemed to see the distraction for what it was and sat straighter.

"So uh," Bing started, shifting forward - and away from the arm Jay had thrown around the couch behind him - and giving Anti an awkward smile. "You work with Marvin?"

Anti gave him a grin that showed off canine, then split it wider when he saw the Omega's eyes dart down to stare. "I'm head prick at the Red Room," he clarified smoothly, watching the way Jay's eyes narrowed in something derisive.

"That's, uh . . . that's like a bouncer, right?" Bing asked, shifting forward like he was interested even though Anti was getting the feeling he was just using this excuse to lean farther from the Alpha next to him.

"Bouncers are for the outside," Anti explained. "And throwing people out when they get too drunk. Prickers keep Alpha fights and claims from breaking out." He paused to wink. "Gotta be a little smarter than a bouncer."

Bing seemed to perk up at that, his smile loosening into something a little more genuine, which did something pretty to his eyes.

"So, what, you just, like, patrol the other Alphas? Make sure they aren't being pushy or whatever?"

"Okay, say you walked into the Red Room," Anti posited, shifting in his seat so he could gesture loosely at the other man. "Pretty young Omega, unmated, smelling like dogwood and opportunity."

Anti could see the way Bing perked up at that, the barest hint of color in his cheeks as his dogwood scent sparked a little higher.

"And here's a whole room full of Alphas that are amped up on Omegan company that they're not allowed to touch. The whole point of the place is for Alphas to be excited about Omegas, but then it needs to stop there, just at the excitement part. _You_ gotta be able to walk in there without a half dozen Alphas starting a claim." Anti let his arms drape over the back of the chair and gave Bing a wink. "That's where I come in."

"You're telling me they leave _you_ to stop drunk scented up Alphas from starting shit in the club?" Jay asked, barely hiding the disbelief in his tone.

"Would you like to play the drunk, scented up Alpha and I can show you how?" Anti flashed his teeth in another grin, and watched the way Jay's lip twitched back in a sneer-turning-snarl.

"I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying it's weird."

"Well the point is to stop fights _before_ they happen, so you probably wouldn't be a great choice yourself."

Jay's sneer pulled back fully to show thick canines, and Anti had to bite back the laugh as the Alpha's scent spiked alongside the Omega's. He could already see the guy puffing up to spout some nonsense when a voice spoke up next to them.

"You must have a powerful Voice."

Anti cut his eyes to look at Mr. Money-Suit on the other couch, his amusement receding as he caught the considering look in those dark eyes again. _Talk about a powerful voice,_ Anti thought bitterly. _Guy sounds like if chocolate could speak._

"Yeah," Anti confirmed, resisting the urge to give the guy a once over again before he turned back to Bing. "But that's not the point. It's not about dominance or whatever. It's about being smarter than a hopped-up horny Alpha."

"Not hard," Jay put in, and Anti laughed, grinning at him.

"No, it really ain't."

And then Anti thought _fuck it, why not_ , and shifted to give Jay his full attention.

"Where are you from?" he asked suddenly, tone showing an interest he hadn't bothered to put the effort in for all night. Jay stopped, blinking at him with a big dumb look on his face before he managed to sputter out an answer.

"Salinas. California."

"That's near, what, San Fran?"

"Hour from San Jose. Like an hour and a half from San Francisco."

"On the coast?"

"Yeah, I mean, close."

"You get a lot of good surfing out there?"

Anti was talking quick, barely waiting for an answer before he was tossing a new question at the other Alpha, and he could already tell this one would be easy. Jay's arm had slipped some from the back of the couch, and he wasn't leaning so hard into Bing as he seemed to try to catch up with Anti's questioning.

"It's on the Monterey Bay, so, yeah."

"You surf?"

"Yeah."

"Is that what the necklace is for?"

Jay looked down, leaning back to stare down his chest at the small medallion resting on his collarbone. Anti took the opportunity to stand, catching Bing's eye and jerking his head for him to move. Bing furrowed his brow, but when Anti stepped up to the couch, the Omega seemed to catch on and hopped up to give him his seat.

"Uh, yeah," Jay said, looking up at Anti and even shifting to give him room to sit.

"It's St., uh, it's one of the Saints, right?" Anti asked, resting his chin in his hand and smiling as he watched Bing out of the corner of his eye. The Omega had stepped aside to stand by his brother's couch, and Anti was pretty sure that had drawn Google and Marvin's attention too.

"St. Christopher," Jay clarified, plucking the necklace from his neck to show Anti. "Patron saint of surfers."

_Travelers, you idiot,_ Anti thought, but didn't let his smile drop.

"Cool," he said, giving him a lazy little nod and then just waiting.

Jay paused, frowning a little as he looked down at the necklace, and then back to Anti, confusion clearer on his face the longer Anti went without saying anything else. When the Alpha started looking around at the rest of the group, Anti realized he really was gonna have to spell it out for him.

"Not hard at all, huh?" he asked with a grin. Jay's brow furrowed deeper, and Anti could see his mouth shape around the word 'what' before recognition lit his eyes, and he snapped up to look at where his little Omega interest stood far out of his reach.

"You-" Jay started, but the shrieking laughter of the blonde Alpha woman cut him off.

"Oh my god," she choked, and Anti shot her a grin as she leaned over the hand still clutching her phone, laughing hard enough to color her cheeks. "Oh my _god_ , Jay."

Anti let a few short little breaths of laughter out between his teeth, a rich flavor of satisfaction on his tongue as he tasted the Alpha's scent spike again in outrage. _God_ , it was so damn easy.

And then he caught the scent under that, an interest laced with spice and gunsmoke, and his eyes shifted to catch that mafia-lookin' motherfucker watching him again, eyes dark and considering and way too focused on him, and Anti decided that was gonna be his cue.

"Well, I'm gonna find a drink," he announced, standing and turning to Marvin who had his hand up over his mouth, knuckle to his lips to fight back a laugh. "Holler if you need me, Mav."

Marvin waved him off, still fighting back a smile as he turned back to an all together unimpressed looking Google.

It really was like the Red Room in here, no matter what Marvin wanted to believe. Dumb Alphas being dumb Alphas, Omegas being . . . well, Omegas. Even just stepping into the next room in search of the bar, Anti could see a multitude of mini-dramas playing out. People acting on instinct, on biological directives, completely oblivious to their own powerlessness to stop it. Just . . . people being animals.

He never had to go to the zoo when the zoo was all around him.

At least the bartender here made good drinks, he discovered as he took the first sip of a whiskey sour, surveying the dark little room around the bar. There were a pair of Omega girls huddled next to him, giggling excitedly over something they were drawing on a napkin, and a group of young Alphas at a table across the room watching them as they nudged each other with daring glances. Anti could already pick out the one who'd move first, the bright-eyed guy sitting on the far edge, whose foot was already half-way out of the booth, and who'd seemed to forget his friends were there.

And on the other side of the Omega girls was the young Alpha girl who'd been eyeing up Marvin earlier, leaning against the bar and practically purring to some pretty sandy-haired Omega boy who seemed flustered but excited to have her attention.

Even the older pair sitting at the booth closest to him, obviously having a more business-minded conversation, were victims to their biological drives, the Alpha's scent a subtle, pleased warmth as the Beta let her lean her knee against hers.

Same as any pheromone club. They were just more honest about it there. Here it was wrapped up in polite conversation and socially-acceptable flattery, instead of open, rank appreciation. Anti wasn't even sure which one he hated more.

He was most of the way through his drink, watching the young Alpha girl tuck a stray strand of curly hair behind the Omega boy's ear, when he noticed Bing peak into the room, leaning around the doorway to scan the crowd as he hung on the doorframe.

Which might be another cue to leave, Anti realized, pressing his half-empty glass to his lips. Not like Bing would be immune to those biological drives either, and a confident Alpha besting another in front of him - even if it wasn't for him, or anything other than a little mockery - was likely to kick some things into gear. And hell, even if he was only coming for a drink and just _happened_ to run into Anti, the Alpha was pretty sure the guy didn't fall too far from the boring tree Google grew off.

So Anti slipped out of the room, heading into another one of the dimly lit lounges - god, how big _was_ this place? - and shoving a hand in his pocket as he took another sip of his drink and surveyed the new cast of drama actors. This room seemed to be a mostly younger crowd, but with a higher percentage of Betas. There were a pair of Beta girls-

"The Omega not to your tastes?"

"Fucking _Christ_ ," Anti spat, only barely not spilling his drink as he jerked to look at the booth next to him, where Mr. Spice-and-Gunsmoke was leaning back and watching him like that was a totally normal thing to do. "You _tryin'_ to be creepy as all shite?"

The man hooked a crooked smile, and that did something _interesting_ to his eyes. "Not particularly."

"Well, congrats, you're a natural," Anti scoffed, and then slipped into the booth because fuck it. He needed a place to set his drink.

The man took a sip of his drink, not raising an eye at Anti's decision to join him. "Not a particularly off-putting trait, it would seem."

"Mm," Anti hummed. "You hiding out from the boring brigade?"

"Google is hardly the dullest of my associates."

"Oh, god, do you just talk like that?"

That earned him a pause. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Oh my god, yeh do," Anti laughed, leaning back and counting off on his fingers. "Okay, so yeh talk like a tans, yeh gotta work with people duller than the walking calculator, and yer here on a Friday night." He took a long pull from his drink before giving the guy a toothy smile. "Remind me to stay out of your line of work."

That seemed to surprise a laugh out of him, something low and more breath than sound, but Anti had an odd feeling that was probably some kind of accomplishment.

"My name's Dark," the Alpha offered after a moment, and Anti choked on his drink.

" _Dark?_ "

Dark smiled that broken smile again, and Anti caught a glimpse of sleek, curved canines. "You were sitting at a table with men named 'Google' and 'Bing' and you think my name is strange?"

Anti opened his mouth to retort, but then just shrugged. "Yeah, alright."

Dark watched him over his drink for a long moment, and Anti took the opportunity to stare, noting the soft black hair, the deep brown eyes, the subtle way his arms tensed under his probably-ungodly-expensive suit.

"This is the part where you tell me yours," Dark finally prodded, and Anti just snorted.

"Twenty bucks says you already know it."

"Maybe I just want to hear you say it," Dark said- _purred_ , and Anti threw his head back and laughed at that.

"Does that line actually work for you?"

The Alpha looked unconcerned with the laughter, shrugging and leaning deeper into his seat. "More than you'd think," he rumbled, and yeah, Anti could see that. The voice, the crooked grin, that jawline. People probably ate that shit _up_.

"Anti," he relented, because sure, why not.

"Anti?" Dark asked, and Anti grinned at him, waiting for the comment, but none came. "Well, can I get you another drink, Anti?"

"Nah, I'm driving Mav home later."

"Mav," Dark started, but seemed to catch on immediately. "Marvin. He's your . . .?"

"Coworker," Anti filled in. "Friend too, I guess. Don't know what else you'd call it."

"Friendships aren't usually up for question."

"Yer tellin' me yeh don't have a single questionable friendship? You seem like the kind of guy that would _only_ have questionable friendships."

"I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not."

"You seem like the kind of guy who measures every person they're around like a scientist studying a new species. Not open to surprises, yeh know?"

Dark watched him for a long, considering moment, and Anti realized in that pause that he hadn't picked up anything off this guy besides that mild, subtle interest he'd tasted earlier. Which was odd, considering Anti had said at least a half dozen offensive things at this point by his count, but not a whiff of irritation or displeasure.

"I'll take it as a compliment then," Dark said finally, giving him that smile that gave him a taste of those canines, and boy howdy, nature'd really been kind to this guy, huh.

"Oh, how generous," Anti rolled his eyes without heat. "I'll be sure to find more _compliments_ for yeh then, shall I?"

"If you must," Dark hummed, and Anti laughed again.

He wasn't gonna lie, he was starting to feel like he might like this guy. Still not the kind he'd trust farther than he could throw him (which, fuck, was _nothing_ for this guy), but he was fun at least. Entertaining. A hell of a lot more than Google & Co. had been. And it didn't hurt that his scent wasn't digging spikes up into his sensitive olfactory glands.

Kind of the opposite, really.

"So what are you doing hanging out with King Beta?" Anti asked, propping his ankle up on his other knee and sipping at what was left of his drink.

Dark's eyes darted down at the movement, catching on his bare ankle and then back up to his hand as he lowered his drink. "Mingling."

"Are there classes on giving the least helpful answers possible? Yeh got a degree in it?"

Dark's lips parted to answer, paused, and then split into a grin that Anti really wanted to call shit-eating.

"Perhaps."

Anti threw his head back and _cackled_ at that. "Oh, _fuck_ you."

And then Dark's eyes did something funny, darting up from where they'd drifted to Anti's throat as he laughed, locking back onto Anti's eyes with that same intense interest from earlier, and Anti caught a whiff of that quiet scent again, and-

Oh.

Oh _fuck_.

That interest was _interest_. Like, _interest_ interest. Like, I wanna fuck you interest.

This guy- Alpha- guy- wanted to fuck him.

Fuck, he'd been pouring off a subtle wave of fuck-me pheromones since back at the damn table, and Anti just hadn't put it together because-

Well, fuck, he had no _reason_ to. He'd never had an Alpha hit on _him_ before, what the fuck. Like, yes, in theory that happened, but not to _him_. Never even _around_ him. The only Alphas making comments like that were either being cunts or were too drunk to notice the _very obvious Alpha scent and canines_ and he was mostly sure this guy wasn't being a cunt, and there was no _way _he'd missed that Anti was an Alpha, but-__

____

____

But what the _fuck_ -

Anti had frozen, something he only realized when he noticed the way Dark's eyes had shuttered again. Not closed off, just- just guarded. Not as open and pleased, and Anti couldn't really tell how he felt about that.

"Have my unhelpful answers offended you?" Dark asked after a moment, but Anti could tell he'd noticed Anti's realization. He knew damn well what Anti was freezing over, and the Irishman couldn't get his brain in order fast enough to decide how he felt about all this shit.

The _fuck_ was he supposed to do with an Alpha hitting on him?

But he didn't know this man. He didn't know him, and all his previous experience said no. Said this wasn't a good thing. Wasn't something he wanted to tolerate, because tolerating shit from Alphas was how he ended up having to fix shit with teeth and fists, and _god_ he didn't feel like it. It wasn't worth it. He didn't fucking _want to_ , not for some random man at a party with mildly interesting responses and teeth.

Anti set his drink down, carefully, tucking his pinky to stop it from clinking against the table, despite the room being loud enough that it didn't matter. His eyes stayed on the drink, lip curling up around his canines, mouth opening, and then closing, and then opening again, before he managed to speak.

"Whatever you're selling," he started, pausing at the strange tone to his voice, before continuing. "I'm not buying."

He cut his eyes back up to Dark after a moment, when his scent didn't spike with irritation or displeasure, and found him offering him a polite smile. One that looked a lot like the smile he'd worn before, easy and attractive, except Anti could _taste_ the wall that was up now, and it felt like it was a mile high.

"Well," Dark said with an easy shrug. "There's no accounting for taste."

That startled a snort out of Anti, and something annoyed rippled through him at that. "No, guess not." And then he shoved his drink away from him and climbed out of the booth, 'cause no way in hell was he gonna do the sit-and-pretend-awkward-shit-didn't-go-down thing with this guy. "I'ma go make sure Jay doesn't turn his grubby little paws on Mav."

"If you'd like to _not_ be bored out of your mind," Dark started, and Anti _did_ pause at that, because yes, he'd like to not be bored out of his mind. "Ask Pidge about her trip to the Netherlands. I'm sure you'll find _something_ in there entertaining."

"Pidge is the blond one?"

Dark huffed a short laugh. "Pidge is the blonde one."

"Alright." And then because he wasn't a complete asshole. "Thanks."

And then because this shit was awkward and he might as well make it better or add to it.

"Hope you find someone with better taste, or whatever."

Dark didn't answer, only gave him that same careful, calculated smile, and turned to look out across the room like he had when Anti first saw him. Eyes guarded and face back to that empty Alpha wall, an obvious dismissal, or maybe just an offered easy out, and alright, nope, Anti was done with this.

The Irishman shoved his hands in his pockets and turned on his heel, heading back into the other room without a goodbye. He was gonna find Marvin, and sit through the boring shit show that was Google, and maybe talk to Pidge or whatever, and not spend any time thinking about what Mr. Alpha-Seeking-Alpha might have been selling.

Because he wasn't buying.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is 15k because I hate myself.

"You look awful."

"Well, shit, Mav," Anti said, scrubbing a hand over his face as he hung his jacket. "Yeh really know how to make a girl feel pretty."

It was still early, a half-hour still before the Red Room opened, and the back room was mostly full of the Omegan entertainers changing or scrubbing their blockers. Marvin was already in some sparkly sequin skirt Anti was pretty sure was supposed to be some weird peacock thing, complete with a ribbon for the tail. His wintergreen scent sat pleasantly under his nose as the Omega draped himself over the back of the couch.

"Well, don't come to work looking like crap and I won't tell you you look like crap."

Anti just bared his teeth at him instead of answering and shoved a walkie into his back pocket.

"No, really, why do you look like crap?" Marvin asked, sounding a bit more sympathetic this time as he pushed off of the couch and stepped up to help Anti run his headphone line down the back of his shirt to the walkie.

Anti made a sound of weary frustration through his teeth, scrubbing a hand over his face. "I was up all night doing the damn challenge paperwork for Sheep."

"Wait, Henrik asked you to-"

"No, of course not, he said leave it till morning. But that asshole Henderson is gonna have his lawyer in here first thing, and I'm not gonna let him start makin' up some story without shit to back up mine."

There had been a significant increase in the number of direct challenge fights Anti and the other prickers had had to engage in at the Red Room recently. One of the high-end clubs, Void, had been shut down three weeks previously for some embezzlement scheme and maybe drugs or something, which had sent a lot of entitled rich kids in search of a new hang out. And Void had apparently had some _very_ different ideas about what was appropriate behavior.

Marvin made a sympathetically irritated sound in turn, smoothing out Anti's shirt against his back.

"Probably shouldn't have broken his arm."

"He probably shouldn't have gotten bitey in my club."

"Yeah, but he didn't _actually_ bite."

"I'm not waiting for him to put his teeth into one of the girls. He put them _on_ one of the girls, that's _more_ than enough."

"His lawyer's not gonna agree."

"His lawyer can suck my dick."

Anti could hear the slow breath Marvin pulled in, long and patient. And then he felt the weight of the Omega's forehead pressing into the small of his back, his fingers hooking into Anti's belt loops.

"Just don't get fired please," he asked in a tired voice, and Anti rolled his eyes, took a deep breath of his own, and let it out in an exhausted rush.

"I won't get fired, Mav. I might get sued, but I won't get fired." He turned to put a hand on the top of Marvin's head, not ruffling his hair, because Marvin would kill him if he messed it up, but just letting the weight rest there. "You know Sheep won't fire me."

"Henrik's not the only one who could fire you."

To that, Anti actually did snort, pulling away to unhook his nice ebony wood watch and tuck it in his locker, replacing it with the simple black all-weather he tended to wear on the clock.

"If the big boss wants to come down here over that, we've got more problems than just me getting fired."

Marvin's lips were pursed in a tight line when Anti turned back to him, looking perfectly silly standing in the brightly lit backroom in his no shirt and sparkly skirt being anxious over pointless shit.

"You still look awful," Marvin finally said after a long pause, and Anti's mouth split into a wide, toothy grin.

"And you look like a rooster."

Anti had to duck the sneaker Marvin threw at him as he ducked out the door.

  


* * *

  


It was a Friday night, and it was _loud_. Not so much in the music or the voices, but in the smells. There was a thick mix of them out on the floor, eager Alpha, excited Omega, anger, lust, irritation, fear, anxiety, contentment. It wasn't quite chaos - there was a certain pattern to the smells that Anti had learned to ride a long time ago - but it was close, and it was nearly overwhelming.

Same old, same old, just up another 50% of normal capacity.

Anti moved easily through the room, never quite taking the same path wherever he went. It was a bigger crowd than he was used to, but it was familiar in the currents, in the ebb and flow of people. Fish kinda moved in the same pattern whether it was a school of 50 or 500, and really, humans weren't any different. Just big stupid things moving in circles.

He wasn't really paying attention to the people directly, though. Faces could be distracting and body language unreliable, no matter what some specialists might think. It was easier to just sift through smells. There was an overlaying scent of lust and general excitement, but occasionally a whiff of something else. Irritation from a guy sitting at the bar staring at his phone - low concern, keep a mild eye on him. Anxiety from an Omegan girl with her Alpha partner - surrounded by other available Omegas and no apparent mating bite, made sense. The first traces of fear on an Omega boy sitting under the arm of a drunk Alpha - wasn't one of his, but intervene in that one anyway.

It was barely 9 o'clock and Anti was already exhausted. The uptick in new patronage had the old crowd on edge, and the new kids eager to carve out space for themselves, and it put everyone in a dickhead kinda mood. Five hours left in his shift and he'd already had to remove two guests and keep a sharp eye on several others.

But 9 o'clock also meant the rest of the shift was coming in, which meant another two prickers on the floor, which meant Anti could take the first easy breath of his shift. And that gave him the chance to head up to the balcony for the first time that night. The open second-floor area was basically like a VIP section, a spiral staircase leading up to a half-floor overlooking the room below, and in the three years the Alpha had been working there, he'd only had to start something up there twice. The VIP patrons tended to be, if not better behaved, more prone to lawsuits over physical altercations, at least.

Tonight it was mostly regulars, big dick money bags and sleazy rockstar types, and Anti made his way casually around them, greeting a few as he went. Most of these guys wouldn't be caught dead interacting with Anti if they could help it, but everyone knew it was better to be on the right side of a club pricker, and so he got mostly polite smiles and guarded eye contact. Except for the guy in the band tee, who gave him the middle finger, since he was the only one up here with _taste_.

It wasn't until Anti had finished with most of the room, making his way towards the man sitting quietly in the far corner, that he registered the familiarity of the spice and gunsmoke scent under his nose, and realized he kinda knew the guy he had to have passed twice by now.

"You following me?"

Dark looked up sharply from the tablet in his lap, dark eyes fixing sharply on Anti. There was a startling familiar moment of that wall again, the quick appraising coldness before the man seemed to recognize him in turn, and his face did something . . . careful.

"I know it's hard to believe," Dark said, and oh, he'd forgotten that fucker's voice. "But I _do_ have a life outside of random parties and the strange men I find there."

"You're right," Anti nodded, tongue moving before his brain. "I don't believe you."

Dark made a short sound that could have been annoyance or amusement, though there was no spike of irritation in his scent. His attention seemed to be more focused on the screen in his hands, a sleek stylus pen between his fingers as he tapped over what looked like a- a _spreadsheet_. Complete with black and red numbers and shit.

"What are you doing hanging out in the corner doing your taxes or whatever?"

Dark took a slow breath, pen hovering over an empty cell for a moment, before he continued filling in the little rows. "Is it normal to interrogate your guests at this establishment?" he asked in an offhanded tone.

_This establishment._ Pretentious dick.

"Literally my job," he answered easily, crossing his arms and smiling. "Especially when they're a strange man sitting in the corner, alone, ignoring all the _pretty things_ people come here for."

"And when I see a _pretty thing_ ," Dark bit back, something sharper in his tone. "I'll be sure to appreciate it appropriately."

Anti had no idea what propelled him to respond with, "I thought that was me." But it was out of his mouth before he'd a had a chance to consider it.

Dark's pen stopped over the screen, hovering there as dark eyes flickered to look up at Anti with an unreadable expression, and Anti didn't let the sudden, unfamiliar panic show in his face.

He hadn't meant to say that. He wasn't even sure why it was the first thing out of his mouth, when he hadn't even thought about the guy in, what, two months now? At least? He'd been a random blip in a series of events, and Anti hadn't given the incident any thought besides an occasional confused pondering since it happened. It was an awkward little smudge, and he didn't want to _repeat it, what the fuck._

Dark's eyes didn't linger, dropping down to his tablet again. "I believe I received a very clear cease and desist on that," he answered smoothly, tapping the screen but not adding any more little numbers. "Or was I wrong?"

_You're not wrong,_ Anti thought sharply, but the words didn't make it to his mouth. He was too stuck on "cease and desist", and wondering who taught this walking period movie to speak like he was trying to flatter a room of 18th-century women.

"How are you even real?" he asked, his tone more honestly bewildered than derisive this time. Dark leaned back farther in his seat, let his hands settle with their tools as he gave Anti his full attention.

"Another compliment?" he asked, and it took Anti a moment to remember that comment from their first conversation, and another moment to marvel at how _easily_ Dark seemed to remember.

"Christ," Anti muttered, rubbing a hand over his face and ignoring the question. "What are you doing here if it's not for the entertainment? You can do your paperwork at home."

"Interesting policy," Dark said, tilting his head to the side as he seemed to appraise the Irishman. "Encouraging patrons _not_ to come pay exorbitant prices for your liquor."

"I'm not trying to fuck with yeh, I'm askin'."

Dark seemed to consider that for a moment, before sliding his finger over the side of his tablet to turn the screen off. "I have . . . associates who prefer certain venues when conducting certain business."

Anti blinked. "They've gotta teach classes on that," he said. Dark's brow twitched down in soft questioning, and Anti continued. "Givin' the vaguest answer possible."

He could see the moment the throwback registered for the other man, because he _smiled_ , something sudden to accompany his quiet laugh, and it was weirdly- weirdly- it was something.

"So, what," Anti asked, ignoring that something in his stomach. "You just come here, sit alone, do your maths homework, and wait for mysterious businessmen in equally boring suits?"

"And enjoy the _pretty things_ ," Dark added, his smile turning to something broader and more intentional, and Anti hid his jerk with a snort.

"Yeah, well, pity, I'm not on the docket for today."

"Pity," Dark agreed, and Anti was going to say something else, remind Dark of what he'd told him before, only-

_"Anti,"_ a voice crackled over his radio, an exhausted-sounding German accent that pronounced "th" like a "z". _"Can you please come help Chase with this man by the bar?"_

Anti offered Dark a tight smile instead as he reached up to trigger his mic. "Be right there, Sheepies."

"Don't let me _distract_ you," Dark said in that voice Anti wanted to call a purr, and he flashed his teeth at the other Alpha.

"Yes, _spreadsheets_ ," he said with a scoff. "However will I pull myself away from those."

The image of Dark's answering smile seemed to follow him down the stairs as he headed off to deal with another drunk asshole.

  


* * *

  


"Still waiting on your boring suit men?"

Dark looked up from his tablet, raising an eyebrow at Anti's return. It had been almost two hours at this point, business picking up sharply in a way that meant the prickers were too busy to socialize. Not that Anti had been in a hurry to get back to him, but the balcony _was_ a nice place to get away from the noise after two hours of wrangling dickwads, and Dark provided, if nothing else, an interesting distraction.

"Presumptuous to assume I'm not meeting a series of associates tonight."

"I'm gonna make a bingo card out of the way you talk," Anti said, taking a moment to stretch and crack his back. "Also, that _definitely_ sounds like you've got a line of Johns waiting for their turn."

Dark's brow furrowed, and he could see the way it took him a moment to place the term.

"Are you implying I'm a prostitute?" the Alpha asked, and Anti laughed.

"Man, if that's what it takes to finally offend you."

Dark tilted his head, giving him a considering look and a careful smile.

"What makes you so sure you haven't offended me already?"

"One, you're still talking to me," Anti said easily, ticking off his fingers. "And two, I could never offend anyone ever. Also, I'd smell it on you," he added, like an afterthought, tapping the side of his nose.

"Mm," Dark hummed back. "I do find that hard to believe."

"You know what I find hard to believe? That some stuffy businessman is out here meeting his _associates_ at 11 pm on a Friday."

"Still suspicious of me?"

"Again, literally my job."

Dark hummed again, leaning back in his chair and offering Anti a smile some probably considered _devastating_.

"Maybe I'm just waiting for you."

Anti made a sound of disbelief. "Are you still hitting on me?"

"You've done very little in the way of discouraging me," Dark answered smoothly, and Anti had to work very hard not to let his face mimic the complicated thing his stomach was doing.

"I'm sorry, was I being _subtle?_ "

Dark smiled again, crooked and smug and pretty, and looked down long enough to hook the pen into the holder on the tablet. "You seem to enjoy the attention. And I don't mind giving it to you."

"Oh, this is a favor, is it?"

"Yes, because it's _such_ a hardship to look at you."

"I'm not gonna fuck you," Anti said flatly, because it apparently needed to be said out loud.

And Dark didn't even blink. If anything, his smile took on a darker hint, and his eyes tracked down the length of Anti again, like he'd done at that party months ago.

"You're not uninterested," Dark said simply, like it was fact, and Anti had a moment to be gobsmacked as he came to the sudden realization that this guy was, in fact, a cunt.

Which he hadn't . . . expected.

"You're a cunt."

Dark laughed at that, rich and full, and Anti felt his lips pull back from his teeth in a low warning, something primal prickling up his spine. It was one he was familiar with, the drive to fix a presumption, the urge to establish himself with teeth and tongue and claws, and he knew that feeling would be accompanied by a sharp spike in his scent, something even the average Alpha could pick up.

"So I've been told," Dark said easily. And then his eyes caught on something past Anti, and Anti could see the way his demeanor changed, the shift into business mode, and he didn't need to be told that Dark's "associate" had arrived. "If you'll excuse me."

The big Alpha stood, setting his tablet aside and buttoning a single button on his suit jacket as he turned his attention to his new companion, and Anti didn't even bother to glance back and see who he'd been waiting on. There were other things that needed his attention, and better things to do than hang around talking to a pretentious cunt anyway.

  


* * *

  


Anti's fists were throbbing in the most _satisfying_ way. His breaths came in deep, ragged, freeing gulps, tasting of blood and Alpha and _challenge_ , and that ran electricity through his veins like nothing else could come close to. The heat of the body under his thighs, the strain in the muscles pressing back against him, the snarl ripping through the other's throat - it was like a direct hit off of God's stash.

" _Yield_ ," Anti commanded, the rich flood of his Alpha Voice seeping through his throat. The kid under him - couldn't be older than 22, arrogant, carrying daddy's credit card and an attitude to go with it - snarled back at him, wordless and wild.

He knew he was stuck, though, Anti could feel it in the desperation of his straining. His body was beaten, and his mind knew it, and it was only his Alpha pride holding on by a stubborn, frantic thread.

" ** _Yield_** ," Anti repeated, pressing down harder, a snarl rising in his throat as he leaned over the other Alpha. There was a thick smell of rage in the air, nearly masking the undertone of fear and shame, and Anti pulled his lip back to bare long, curved teeth, a threat the other Alpha couldn't see with his eyes rolling in mindless fury.

A bar fight might be led by drunken anger, a fight for one's life led by fear, but it was a different kind of instinct that kicked in in fights like these. A different kind of instinct that propelled Anti down to latch his teeth around the front of the kid's throat, feel his Adam's apple bob as canines threatened against delicate skin, and ripped the deep, Alpha growl from low in Anti's chest.

**_Yield_** , it said without words, and there was a tremor through the kid's arms, a hitched, shuddering breath, and then the fight went out of him all at once.

Anti didn't know the science behind it. He'd liked biology well enough in school, but he hadn't managed to retain much more than "hormones and chemical bullshit" to explain the rush of _feeling_ that hit on forcing a yield from someone else, especially an Alpha. It was a thick rush, like morphine, or an orgasm, something that crashed over him like a heavy wave and flooded through his aching muscles like a reward for their struggle.

It was fucking _good_ was the point.

Anti released his hold on the kid, leaning back and watching a bruise well up on one corner of the bite. All in all, he hadn't made it out too badly. A split lip, the hint of a bite, and maybe a black eye, it looked like. He hadn't even bloodied his nose. Left his pretty face mostly intact, actually, something the kid should really be grateful for.

Anti himself barely had more than some scratches, stinging skin that couldn't really break through the challenge high just then. He sat back, letting the tension ease out of him and resisting the urge to toss his head back and revel in it - he needed to keep some form of professionalism here. Honestly, he'd hoped the kid would put up more fight than that. There was a certain pleasure that came from walking away from something like this with bruises and bite marks, but he supposed he'd take the small high for what it was.

There was a crowd around the pair, something Anti hadn't cared about during the fight. People liked to watch fights, that was just a law of nature, and no one had been stupid enough to step too close during. Anti's eyes scanned through the group unhurriedly, looking for one of his other prickers to escort the subdued Alpha away from the group.

Instead, he found Dark.

Anti hadn't seen the Alpha in a week now, and the sight of him standing to the side, drink in hand, other hand hooked into one pocket, just watching him, was more jarring than he'd expected.

His first thought was _I don't like being on the ground next to you_. His second thought was _Did you watch the fight?_

His third thought was not a thought he was going to let live in his head. Not with the way it pitched his heart back up into a weird, excited thrum.

"I got him," a low voice said next to him, and Anti glanced up to find Chase crouched down next to him, the Beta pricker's cap tucked backwards over his washed out hair. He had one of his hands laid loosely over the kid's shoulder, waiting for Anti to move, and Anti didn't hesitate to let the Beta take over. Chase was the right prick for this one - a Beta would keep the kid from chaffing over his loss, but Chase also wouldn't let him walk all over him. The guy was tougher than he looked, for all his puppy-dog eyes lied.

Most of the group started to disperse as Anti got to his feet, dusting off his pants, but Dark stayed right where he was, taking a sip of his drink without breaking eye contact.

"Enjoy the show?" Anti asked with a bite, curling back his lip to show teeth he suddenly wished were bloody.

"Unequivocally," Dark answered in that purring voice, and Anti groaned.

"God, I gotta make that bingo card."

Dark cocked his head. "And what would that square be?"

"'Used word with three or more syllables for literally no reason.'"

"I always have a reason for the words I choose."

"You couldn't have just said 'yes'?"

"Why would I use something so bland for something with such . . . feeling." He grinned in a way that made Anti feel like he was missing a joke.

"Why would you do something simply when you could be a cunt about it," Anti shot back, and Dark laughed, and dipped his chin in acknowledgment.

"I was right though," Dark said, pausing to take another sip, and Anti rolled his eyes as he fixed his mic line back up to his ear.

"About what?"

"You do have a powerful Voice."

Anti paused, trying to decide whether he liked that or not.

"I'd say 'thank you', but pretty sure that's one of those things you're just born with."

"Genetics can play some role," Dark allowed. "But a Voice is built on the intent behind it. On what you . . . _mean_ with it."

"And what does is it sound like I _mean_ with it, Dark?" Anti asked, mild exasperation slipping into his voice.

"Yield," Dark said simply, and then continued before Anti could open his mouth again. "So I can take care of things. Yield, because it's the smart choice. Yield, because it'll turn out best for you that way."

Anti took a slow breath in, something uncomfortable running up his spine, and he bared his teeth as he spoke. "Man, you're real fuckin' lucky I'm still riding this challenge high."

Dark's eyes tracked down the length of him again, openly appreciative, and Anti could feel the pinpricks on the back of his neck as his hackles tried to rise.

"It looks good on you."

" **Quiet.** "

Anti froze the moment the word was out of his mouth, his throat hot with the taste of his Alpha Voice. Dark had stopped too, and Anti worked not to hold his breath, to breathe evenly, as he waited for the backlash on that. You used your Voice for fighting and fucking, and that was it. Bringing it out for a _conversation_ was just asking for teeth, and Anti had always been smart about the way he'd used it in the past. He wasn't even sure why it'd come out like that, besides his blood still thrumming from the fight, and the fact that Dark was such a _cunt_.

He didn't apologize though. He just waited, watching Dark watch him, waiting for the bite back.

And then Dark let out a low breath, and something about that kicked Anti's heartbeat right back up again, made him want to push harder, to see what else he could get out of him, and he had to bite his tongue to stop whatever else wanted to slip out.

"It is quite a Voice," Dark told him easily, like Anti hadn't just used it on him, like he hadn't just insulted the hell out of him, and Anti wondered _again_ what it took to offend this bastard.

"Mm," Anti replied, because honestly, what the fuck else was there to say?

"I'll leave you to your work," Dark said, and something uncoiled from Anti's throat at the realization that Dark was leaving him be. "I've neglected my own long enough."

"Cool," Anti said, dusting his hands, and then turning on his heel to leave without another word, the scent of spice and gunsmoke following him as he went.

  


* * *

  


Anti leaned against the railing, working to keep his toe from tapping a staccato beat against the rails. His eyes tracked Marvin as the Omega made his way back from the bar, drink in hand and that sly, polite smile on his face as he slipped through the crowd. At least he was easy to follow, his big loopy curls a vivid green spotlight against the dark crowd. Actually, from this high up, his dark brown roots kind of gave him a halo, which was funny, considering _Marvin_ would have lost that halo within seconds of getting it, but there it was.

The Omega moved through the crowd like he was a liquid. Or a cat, he supposed. But cats were a liquid, so that was the same thing.

_God_ , he was so _bored_ up here.

Marvin made it back to his companion, the big, sleazy looking Alpha with his arm in a cast, and Anti curled a lazy lip at the douchebag. God, this was fuckin' ridiculous. Stuck up here, practically nose-blind and bored out of his mind, all because someone's itty bitty feewings were hurt, and that someone also happened to have a considerable amount of money. Should have broken his fucking neck. Or maybe just kicked him in the dick, then might have sued him instead of this bullshit.

"Did you know," a voice spoke up next to him, and something jolted deep in Anti's gut. "That you smell like electricity when you're angry."

The Irishman didn't move from his place leaned against the balcony, just turned his head to look at where Dark had joined him. The Alpha was in a new suit this time - or maybe he'd been in different suits every time, but this one was white, and that was a lot easier for Anti's uncultured eyes to actually notice.

"Nice suit," he said back, and he didn't miss the little taste of pleasure that earned him out of Dark's scent. That prickle of something ran up his spine again, that something that kind of wanted to settle in his stomach and make him _do_ something. "Did you ditch your friends to come tell me I smell like a storm?"

Anti turned to look back at Dark's usual table, where he had been sitting with a small pack Anti had vaguely recognized, which was now empty.

"We concluded our business," Dark answered easily, and Anti could feel the Alpha's eyes on him as he turned to look back out at the crowd.

Marvin and Henderson had taken a seat with another group, chatting comfortably, and while he couldn't smell them, he could tell from Marvin's body language that things were all good. He let his eyes drift over the rest of the crowd, filtering through faces and body language quickly, and pausing when he caught sight of Google's friend Jay with another group. The Alpha caught sight of him at almost the same moment, giving him a lazy two-fingered salute, which Anti returned.

Well, at least there were no hard feelings there.

"And I didn't say you smelled like a storm," Dark continued after a sip of his drink. "I said you smelled like electricity."

Anti didn't look up. "What's the difference?"

"Rain."

"So I don't smell wet. Noted."

Dark made a noise, and it was kind of freaky to Anti that he could pick that one out as amusement.

"And what has you smelling like electricity?" Dark asked, which was a ridiculous question, and should have sounded more ridiculous coming from him, but- "If I may ask."

Anti snorted. "'If I may ask.' That deserves its own bingo square."

Dark didn't say anything to that, just waited, and it was kind of freaky to Anti that he knew to do that.

"I broke a guy's arm in a challenge a few weeks ago," he explained, vaguely gesturing towards Henderson. "He's back tonight, and figured I'd prevent a repeat by hanging out away from him for a bit."

"Hm," Dark said, watching the pair below them. "You'd like to break his other arm?"

"I couldn't give a shit about him."

"Is it his choice of companion then?"

"What?" Anti said, finally looking back up at Dark in confusion. "Oh- no, I just hate being stuck up here."

"Ah," Dark hummed, straightening and looking back out at the crowd. "Yes, a pity to be stuck within speaking distance of me."

"Do you have to duck to fit that ego through doorways?"

Dark laughed, and Anti couldn't help but grin.

"No, I'm just- so far away from shit," he explained. "I wanna be in the- thick of things, or whatever."

Dark's head tipped back in understanding, his soft hum just barely audible over the music. "You don't like being removed."

"I don't like being _blind,_ " Anti said through his teeth. "I can't smell shit from up here. Also, it's fuckin' _boring_."

"There are benefits to seeing from a distance."

"Not for me."

Dark went quiet at that, and Anti took a moment to take in the crowd again. Marvin and his douchebag companion seemed content in their little group, and Jay had found a group of his own. Chase was off talking to a group of young rowdy Alpha girls, and from here Anti could even see Schneeplestein at the bar, leaning over the counter to listen to one of the entertainers.

And Anti was stuck in VIP hell.

"So what do I usually smell like?" he asked Dark, because fuck it, if he was gonna be up here, might as well use him as a distraction.

"When you're not angry?" Dark asked, and there was something . . . hesitant in his tone. Anti glanced at him, finding dark eyes watching him carefully, and Anti gave him a proper what-the-fuck look.

"Yeah."

"Fresh air," Dark answered after a long moment. "Mountain air. Like cold stone and wind-bare trees."

"Huh," Anti said. "You smell like someone had a shootout in a spice factory."

Dark stopped, his brow pulling ever so slightly together, lips parting for a moment before he managed to speak. "I'm not sure anyone's described it quite like that before."

"I get that a lot."

"Dark."

Anti and Dark turned in unison to the new voice, an Alpha man with a kind of smokey, charcoal-y kind of scent standing at a polite distance. He looked like he'd been caught midway between transforming from an angsty high schooler into a respectable businessman, what with the black gauges and eyeliner paired with the crisp vest and tie, and he was looking at Dark like . . .

. . . like something.

"Nate," Dark greeted, and his voice was different. Richer, a curling edge to the name, and Anti couldn't help but glance at him at the sound.

"I hope I'm not interrupting something," the newcomer- Nate- said with a smile that curled just this side of cruel, and Anti immediately shifted him into the "Dangerous Unknown" category.

"Not at all," Dark purred. Except this was a different purr, something fuller, more powerful, and Anti suddenly felt like he needed to put this Dark in the same category. "You're earlier than I expected."

"Eager to see you, of course," Nate said with that edged smile.

And then the new Alpha's attention slipped to Anti, a hint of curiosity sitting behind his faux politeness as he took a moment to appraise him. There was something about the way his eyes raked over him that made Anti think of a bidder appraising a piece of chattel at an auction, and Anti didn't smile, or offer any kind of acknowledgment.

It was his club, and he had no reason to give this guy anything. Not when his scent put his teeth on edge in a way that screamed 'high risk'.

Nate didn't seem particularly put off. His smile cut wider for a moment, before he turned back to Dark.

"Love the suit," he told him.

Dark smiled, and made a sweeping gesture back towards his little table. "Please."

Nate looked back to Anti first, eyes lingering for a long moment like he was looking for something, before he turned to follow Dark to their seats.

Anti watched them for a long moment as they settled in, Dark leaning back and crossing one leg over the other as he listened to whatever Nate was saying. Mafia. Guy had to be mafia, right? Anti had pinned Dark for mafia or rich kid when he first saw him, and this fit into that theory just fine. It wasn't like it was unheard of to have mafia pack members in here - hell, the club itself technically had mafia connections through the ownership - and Anti could believe it out of either of them.

He just hadn't expected to be right about that particular shot in the dark.

Dark laughed pleasantly at something Nate said, the other Alpha resting his chin in his hand and watching Dark laugh with that little smile, and Anti shoved off of the balcony.

"Schneep, I'm taking a 15," he pinched into his mic.

He needed some fresh air, he decided. Marvin was still chatting with Monseur Douche, Dark and Mr. Deal-with-the-Devil were laughing over something, and Anti couldn't get the mix of charcoal and spice out of his nose.

God, he hated this place sometimes.

  


* * *

  


It didn't occur to him that the two might be fucking until after closing that night. Anti was sitting on the couch in the backroom, leaned over to retie his boot laces as he waited for Marvin to change, and his brain was doing a tired loop over the events of the day. He was replaying Nate's smile, the lick of teasing in his voice, his invasive, appraising eyes, and suddenly he thought, _Was that flirting?_

If Dark was flirting with him with such ease, he had to be pretty comfortable with his . . . predilections, right? No way Anti was the first one he'd hit on, and there was no reason to limit his options to an obviously unreceptive Alpha, regardless of what Dark might say.

Those two could be fucking. Or any of the Alphas Dark met with. Or any number of people Anti didn't know about.

_He's probably experienced then, huh._

"You good?" Marvin's voice piped up next to him, and he jerked up to look at him. The Omega was leaned over the back of the couch, Chase's hat flipped backwards on his head, some of his curly hair stuck through the little hole above the strap. "You look tired."

"It's almost 4, Mav, of course I'm tired." He looked back down to finish tying his boot. "What about you? Henderson much of a dick?"

"Nah, he was fine," Marvin said with a shrug. "But I'm not really the type he's trying to claim, so."

"Yeah, well, he's a cunt, so you never know."

"He's not _that_ bad."

"Yeh know, one day I'm gonna make a list of all the people you've told me 'weren't that bad.'"

Marvin snorted, and then shifted up so he was leaning on his forearms on the back of the couch. "Speaking of," he said, cocking his head to the side so his hair slipped down to his shoulder under his hat. "Was that Dark up there with you?"

Anti let out a short bark of a laugh. "Yeah. Apparently, he does _business_ here on Fridays."

" _Really?_ "

"Yeah. Some of his _associates_ prefer doing business in certain _venues_ , he says."

Marvin made a face. "Weird."

"Mmhmm."

"Wait, what kind of associates?"

"I don't know, most of them looked like the stuffy business types. But m'pretty sure he's fuckin' at least one of 'em."

"Oh my god," Marvin laughed suddenly. "Oh my god, do you think- like- do you think he just- uses business terms for everything? Like, he can't go to a party without calling it a 'teamwork-building event' or whatever?"

Anti threw back his head and howled at that, the loud laugh startled out of him and rolling into something uncontrolled and raucous.

"And- and-" Marvin continued, choking back his laughter as he tried to speak. "And if he's trying to pick someone up, it's a 'team-building exercise'?"

"Sex is a c-collaborative effort towards a mutual goal," Anti managed around his own laughter, and both of them devolved into that stupid kind of laughter that usually gave Anti a headache.

"Oh my god," Marvin choked out after a few moments, turning his head into Anti's outstretched neck as he tried to breathe around his giggles. Anti tilted his head back farther, letting the Omega settle there, tasting the wintergreen of his scent in the back of his throat as he caught his breath. "Oh, that's so mean."

Marvin said it with a touch of disappointment, like he was realizing he couldn't have something, and Anti snorted.

"Pretty sure his ego could handle it, Mav," he hummed, waving a hand lazily at him.

"Hm," Marvin said noncommittally, and nuzzled further into Anti's throat.

_Ah_ , Anti thought, catching that sweet, mint chocolate flavor under Marvin's scent. _Heat soon_.

He made a point of relaxing further into the couch, shifting to give the Omega more room to scent him, and closed his eyes, the familiar cadence of Marvin's breathing against his throat a comforting sound.

"Talk," Marvin said, a little sleepily, and Anti rolled his eyes.

"He wants to fuck me."

"What?" Marvin asked sharply, sitting back up to look down at Anti in what the Alpha assumed was shock, but he didn't open his eyes to check.

"Dark. Pretty sure he wants to fuck me."

"What makes you think that?"

"He told me."

Marvin was silent for a few long moments, before he lowered himself back down into the crook of Anti's neck. "Huh."

"Mmhmm."

"You gonna- . . .?"

Anti snorted. "Probably not."

"So possibly."

"Mav."

"You said _probably_ not."

"And I meant _probably not_."

"Hmm . . ." Marvin trailed off, turning his head to rest on Anti's shoulder.

"What?"

"I dunno. Just can't picture him, like, hitting on somebody."

" _What?_ " Anti asked incredulously.

"Like, I don't know him well, he occasionally works with Google and I think we've talked twice? But he just doesn't seem like the . . . flirty type?"

"Are we talking about the same guy?"

"What, is he really flirty with you?"

"He's-" Anti started, and then stopped, trying to find the word for it. "I don't know. He's . . . intense, I guess."

"Both times I talked to him it felt like there were like eight layers between us."

"Well, yeah, that's a thing. But he's, just, he _watches_ -"

"Oh, yeah, he does watch real close."

"Yeah, and he just- I dunno, he looks at me likes he wants to eat me."

"Mm," Marvin said, sounding sleepy again. "Hot."

Anti snorted.

"Hey Marvin," Chase called, and Anti looked up lazily to watch the Beta enter the room, step faltering as he spotted the pair on the couch. Anti didn't need to catch the muddy spike in his whiskey scent to know that sent him into a fun little spiral, and the Alpha resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

One day he'd probably have to sit the idiot down and explain what he and Marvin were, if Marvin didn't beat him to it. But he wasn't going to do it until he _had_ to.

After four years, he was tired of explaining that he could want to pack an Omega without wanting to fuck him.

"Are you, uh," Chase continued, picking up a careful pace into the room. He was doing his best not to make it obvious, but Anti knew he was nervous of the Alpha, conflicted, his scent thickening the closer he got. "You ready Marv?"

"Yeah," Marvin said, yawning directly into Anti's throat, and the Alpha shoved him away with a huff. Marvin just giggled and shoved Anti's hair the other way. "You should dye this again."

"Go home," Anti snipped, baring his teeth, and Marvin laughed as he shoved off the couch and spun around to Chase.

"I'm keeping your hat," he told the Beta, and Anti could actually see the tension flow out of him as he made a grab for his baseball cap, just missing it as Marvin ducked past him.

"Wait, that's my good one!"

"Get a new one!"

"Marvin!"

"Just drop him off at a dumpster somewhere, Chase," Anti called after them, grinning at the indignant squawk that earned him from Marvin. "Like a stray cat."

"Good night Anti!" Marvin called, shoving Chase out of the room apparently before Anti could give him any more ideas, and Anti laughed as he let his head drop back against the couch.

_Probably not_ , he thought again, laying there and staring up at the ceiling. Probably should have just said 'no', he realized. Marvin was going to take that little nugget and chip at it until it was its own little thing, and Anti was gonna have to live with it. And he really couldn't think of any situation that would lead him to actually fucking the guy. He'd have to get over the whole Alpha thing, and the scent, and the attitude, and the guy just being a general cunt. And that was a tall order when he could just go fuck something he was more interested in.

Not that he was doing a lot of that to begin with.

What would it even be like?

_He's got big hands._

"Alright," Anti said aloud, scrubbing at his face. It was too late for this shit, and he was going home.

Before his brain decided to toss any more bulllshit thoughts his way.

  


* * *

  


"So I have a question," Anti said, dropping himself gracelessly into the empty chair next to Dark and crossing his legs in a mockery of the man's pose.

Dark looked up over his tablet, eyeing Anti carefully for a long moment before he continued tapping away at the screen. "Go on."

"What happens when you actually get someone to say yes?"

Anti could see Dark's mouth twitch up in something that might have been amusement. "If you'd care to elaborate the question."

"You do your pretty little eye fuck thing," Anti said, waving his hand loosely at him. "What happens when someone's actually into it? Do yeh just take 'em off to the toilet for a quick little fuck, or do yeh have a preferred hotel room tucked away somewhere?"

"You have a disturbing pattern of implying I am some kind of sex worker," Dark said in a low rumble without looking up, and Anti snorted.

"Well, when you're playin' like yer gettin' paid for it."

"Hardly."

"Oh, _hardly_ ," Anti laughed.

Dark's mouth was curled up just slightly into a smile as he tapped away at his little screen, and Anti followed the motion of his hand down to where he seemed to be hand-writing something. Which was weird, especially because it looked like the text was being converted to regular type on the screen as he went, so what was the point in handwriting it instead of using the keyboard? Or maybe his fingers were too big to comfortably use the keyboard? They did seem pretty thick, tendons and veins shifting under the skin as he worked the tablet pen over the screen.

He did have big hands.

Huh.

Anti glanced back up to find Dark watching him, that smile still holding as his pen finished moving across the screen, and Anti suddenly felt like he'd been caught out.

"Pretty little eye fuck thing?" Dark asked, and something crawled up Anti's spine, pulling his lips back to bare his teeth instead of responding, and Dark laughed. "Yes, I'm not quite sure that's having the effect you're hoping for."

"What, my teeth doing it for you?" Anti snapped back, keeping his lip curled back, and he could actually watch Dark's eyes dart to them, could taste the little shift in his scent, and, well, fuck, that answered that, didn't it.

Dark just smiled, looking back down to scrawl something else across his screen, and Anti groaned, tipping his head back against the chair.

"How long are you gonna keep this shit up."

"Until you tell me to stop.

"Oh, so it's my job, is it?"

"Yes," Dark said, and there was something more serious in his tone that made Anti look back up. The other Alpha was watching him again, eyes dark and focused, and he shifted to lean forward, all of his attention suddenly fixed on Anti in a way he had a feeling he wasn't going to like.

Or was going to like in ways he didn't want to think about.

"Tell me to stop," Dark continued, lip curling carefully around the words. "Look me in the eye, and _tell_ me to stop, and I will. I won't watch you anymore. I won't follow the curve of your spine as you walk. I won't look at your teeth and wonder how deep they bite. I won't tangle your scent over my tongue until I feel like I can taste you for real. All you need to do is _tell_ me, and I'll leave you be."

Dark leaned back again, that smile faint and smug.

"But until then, I'm going to look and taste my fill, and do my best to remind you that I'd like to do more than that."

Anti's mouth cracked open, a faint sound starting a word before it died in his throat. Dark turned back to his tablet, scratching away again, and Anti's eyes dropped to his hands, watched the flex of his wrist under his suit, back up to his face, where his hair was falling forward over his eyes.

Well.

Fuck.

"You didn't answer my question," he managed finally, and fuck was he glad his voice came out steady. Dark looked back up to him, waiting, and Anti continued. "What happens if I say yes?"

Dark smiled, slow and crooked.

"I take you to dinner."

  


* * *

  


"Have you seen Chase yet?" Marvin asked as he hung his jacket by the door. "I left my phone charger in his car, and he's not answering me."

"Nope," Anti said as rifled through his locker, finding the bottle of paracetamol and popping two of the little pills dry. There was a headache settling in between his eyes, and Saturdays were guaranteed to just make those worse. "If you need a charger, you can borrow mine."

"Thanks," Marvin said, stepping up to take the charger as Anti pulled it from his bag and handed it over.

It was as Marvin turned to find an outlet, his hair spinning in a wide, wafting arc, that Anti caught that spike of mint chocolate, and caught the Omega's wrist with a sharp, "Oi!"

Marvin didn't resist as Anti pulled him back to sniff over his shoulder, nose wrinkling at the scent that put that little bump of adrenaline under his skin.

"Really? You're not taking today off?" he asked, pulling back and looking down at the Omega with a frown.

Marvin shrugged, looking off to the side with something uncomfortable. "I mean . . . it's not strong enough for anyone to smell it yet, is it?"

"No," Anti said, frowning deeper and letting him go. "But yer hormones gotta be up by this point. Isn't it gonna be uncomfortable to be-" he waved his hand, looking for the term. "-pawed at so close to yer heat?"

"I'll be fine," he said with another shrug, his mouth pulling to one side. "I don't wanna sit at home. I can finish up today and then just take next week off."

Anti watched him for a long moment, considering, before he shrugged too. "I'm not your mom," he said simply. "Just remember to call me if you need me."

Marvin smiled at that, and something uncomfortable seemed to soften in his face as he looked back at the Alpha. "Thanks, Anti."

"I mean that, you know, in general. By the way."

Marvin's smile split into a grin. "Oh, I know. You love me, it's great."

Anti wrinkled his nose. "Gross."

  


* * *

  


"Anti!"

Anti turned on his heel at his name, eyes raising sharply when he found Chase slipping through the Saturday club crowd, jacket still tugged up around him. "You're late," he told him in a half-annoyed, half-curious voice, and the Beta grimaced.

"Yeah, I, uh. I got in an accident up on Plymouth."

"You were _in_ an accident?"

"Yeah. It wasn't bad, but the car's fucked. Which, speaking of-"

"Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, it's just the car that's fucked. Which, I needed to ask you if you could take Marvin home."

"Yeah, obviously that's fine."

"I know it's on the other side of town, I just-"

"Chase, I've got it. Shut up and go change. I'll talk to Schneep for you."

"I-" Chase started, and then seemed to falter for a moment before his shoulders sagged. "Yeah, uh- th- thanks Anti."

"Go," Anti said, baring his teeth, and watched the Beta duck his head and dart back through the crowd towards the back room. "Jesus," he muttered under his breath, before turning to head for the bar.

It would have been easier to just use the radio, but Anti had been heading for the bar anyway, planning to camp it for a bit as he watched the party-goers. Marvin was settled in at a little area not too far from it with a larger group, including Google's friend Jay, and it would be easy to watch him there too.

It took him a minute to weasel his way into a spot at the far side of the bar, up against the wall, and more than a few minutes before Schneep had enough time to breathe to check in with him.

"Chase is here," he told him quickly. "Apparently he got in an accident on the way, but he's fine. Fucked his car though so you might need to change his schedule some."

Schneep nodded, rubbing a hand across his forehead. "He is fine?"

"He says he is."

"Okay. Let him run the balcony for a bit, ya?"

"Yeah, I figured."

Someone yelled something drunk and angry from the other side of the bar, and Schneep rolled his eyes, but turned to them, leaving Anti to lean against his little haven and watch the crowd. It was loud tonight, at least two big groups here already drunk off their ass and making it everyone else's problem. But no one had started any shit so far, so Anti would take it as a win for now.

It was only a few minutes later that he spotted Dark. It was weird how startling it was to see him on a Saturday - the Alpha had only been following his Friday pattern for a few weeks, but it still felt blasphemous to see him here any day other than that. Like he was somehow stepping out of the little world Anti had built for him just by the simple act of being here.

He was looking for a spot at the bar, Anti realized, approaching casually, one hand in his pocket, lazily searching through the crowd, and Anti knew he was going to spot him long before he did.

He wasn't entirely sure what possessed him to, but when Dark caught sight of him, Anti leaned back against the wall, tapping the bar in front of him to beckon the Alpha to the space he'd just made for him.

"What a gentleman," Dark said in a tone that held just a touch of mockery as he stepped up into the space Anti had left him, and the Irishman immediately realized his mistake.

It was crowded, so he was close. Really close. Like, could feel his fucking body heat close, and for a moment, he was all Anti could smell. Just spice and gunsmoke and heat and the pull of his suit as he shifted in his new space and leaned forward to flag down the other bartender.

"Christ," Anti said, without thinking, and Dark turned to look at him, forearms resting on the bar and hair falling in his face as he looked him over.

"Problem?"

"Yer always a fuckin' problem," Anti popped back, diverting as quickly as possible, and Dark laughed low.

"And what have I done this time?"

"Well, you're here on a Saturday for one."

"Ah. Am I only allowed one day a week?"

"You seem like the kind of guy that'd rather die than break habit, so."

"On the contrary," Dark rumbled with a smile. "I think you'll find that I am . . . _quite_ flexible."

"Christ," Anti said again, this time laughing as he tipped his head back against the wall. "Of course you are."

The other bartender - Markus, maybe? He was new so Anti hadn't really met him yet - came by and took Dark's order, leaving them both in silence for a long moment as the music bumped around them. Anti took the moment to close his eyes, listen to the loud voices, find the undercurrent of scents underneath Dark's and taste for anything he needed to deal with.

Lust, adrenaline, excitement. Nothing out of the ordinary. Although with Dark this close, he could smell the dye in his suit, and he opened his eyes to look back at him without moving his head off the wall.

"So you're just in a suit 24/7?" he asked, reaching out to tug absently at the sleeve of Dark's jacket. The fabric even _felt_ expensive under his fingers, and he could taste another light scent of some kind of cleaner coming off it. "Do you even have anythin' else in your closet?"

"I am . . . particularly fond of suits, yes," Dark said after a moment, and Anti snorted.

"Just on you, or are you imagining me in one too?"

Dark's eyes flickered sharply to Anti, and Anti laughed as he watched them dart down and back up, like it was completely unintentional.

"Oh god, you like that? What, you wanna play dress up? Put me in some _respectable_ clothing?"

Dark took a careful breath in through his teeth. "I find myself oddly attached to your usual attire."

"What, really?" Anti looked down at himself, at the heavy black boots, black ripped jeans, simple black shirt. He was in about the most stereotypical basic-bitch club clothes he could think of, and that really didn't seem to vibe with Dark's aesthetics. "I find that hard to believe."

"Perhaps I'm broadening my horizons."

"Oh, now that's something I'd like to see," Anti said, pushing off the wall to tug at Dark's suit again. "You in some jeans and a non-button-up shirt. Do you even own casual clothes?"

Dark was watching him again. "I do."

"I don't mean, like, a button-up and some slacks, Dark," Anti said, slipping his thumbs into the lapels of his jacket and pulling the tight over his chest. "I mean t-shirts and sweat pants. Like, _comfortable_ clothes. Although I guess your scent wouldn't go as well with tank tops and board shorts."

_Why am I touching him so much?_ The sudden awareness of how close the other Alpha was hit him again, the wall a solid weight behind him with barely any breathing room between them, and that was-

"What does my scent go with?" Dark asked lowly, and Anti could hear the crooked grin without looking up.

"Suits, obviously," Anti said in a surprisingly easy voice, shrugging and pointedly not looking him in the eye.

"Hm," Dark hummed, and then he shifted, and he was closer, probably too close, except Anti's hackles weren't rising, and wasn't that weird? "Do you know what you smell like?"

"Hm," Anti echoed back, biting the bullet and looking him straight on with what he hoped was a mild kind of interest.

"You smell like a mountain breeze you could fly on," he said, low and close to his ear now. And again, that should be stupid, and it should be even stupider coming from _him_ but- "You smell like a sharp dive off of unforgiving rock, like the cut of stone against a bare sky. You smell like freedom."

Dark stepped closer. He was almost against him, pinning him against the wall just by standing there, and Anti tried- he really _tried_ not to shiver when the Alpha turned his face into the crook of his neck. Not quite touching, just breathing- _scenting_.

"And I'd like a taste."

Anti let out a short breath of a laugh, but there was too much awe in it to break whatever little bubble Dark had just put around them. Anti could feel the dull thrum of his heartbeat in his throat, could feel the heat coming off Dark to soak into his clothes, his scent weaving its way into the fabric, and he sucked in a breath that tasted only like him.

"I bite," he managed, not entirely sure why that was the response, but it felt important to say.

And Dark- _growled_. Something low and deep and primal in his chest and Anti didn't understand exactly the response his body had to that, but he knew he was hard and it took the wind out of him.

"I hope so," Dark growled, directly into his ear, and that felt like a promise, and suddenly that was too much.

The scent, the sound, being trapped against the wall with voices in every direction, the arousal pumping through his blood as he struggled to put his thoughts together - it was just too much at all once.

"Back up," he said, sharp and clear, and suddenly he could breathe. There was space between them again, and Dark was leaning back, watching Anti, face careful and neutral and behind that mask, and Anti wanted to laugh at how easy that was.

Instead, he glanced to the side, catching sight of where Schneep was pouring a drink and watching the pair of them with a clear look of concern, like he was considering whether he needed to come over there, and Anti did laugh then. He shook his head at the German, closing his eyes before tilting his head back to rest on the wall again.

"We're scaring my manager," he told Dark with a grin. The other Alpha glanced to the side, not quite looking back to where Schneep had turned back to the drink he was making, and it was interesting to watch the little shift come over his face.

"Mm," he rumbled softly, taking another step back and picking up the drink that had appeared on the bar in front of him. "Not a workplace-appropriate conversation, I suppose."

"Depends on the workplace," Anti laughed, running a hand through his hair. "Pretty sure you could make an argument it's appropriate here."

"Would you like to make that argument to him?"

Anti laughed again, and shook his head, tilting it back against the wall. He was suddenly aware of how bare his throat was every time he did that, and he swallowed, closing his eyes, and then shoving off the wall altogether.

"Not really," he said, clapping a hand over Dark's shoulder. "I need to get back to work anyways."

And then as he took a step behind him, he paused, leaning in to speak almost against the back of Dark's neck.

"We'll talk about getting you into some better clothes later."

Dark laughed, the sound barely audible, and Anti grinned before he shoved off and stepped back out into the crowd.

  


* * *

  


It was weird to switch back into work mode for once, especially when Dark's scent seemed to want to linger in his nose. But it was Saturday, and it was loud, and it was important that Anti pay attention, so he did.

One of the big groups was getting louder, two girls sitting together basically screeching whatever song was playing right then, and the gaggle of girls around them getting rowdier with every passing minute. It seemed like mostly a group of Betas having a good time, but Anti still kept an eye on them as he stepped around the bar, watching the people milling around them. Enough hype could be all it took to set off the wrong Alpha, a lesson Anti had learned the hard way one too many times.

Luckily the big group Marvin was sitting with seemed rather chill by comparison. There were eight or nine of them, spread around a couple of sofas, chatting and laughing and drinking and generally behaving, which was good, except-

Anti slipped into the group casually, offering easy smiles and a cheers from one of the Betas laying out across one of the couches. They looked pretty deep in their cups already, ruddy cheeks and slurred speech, and the two outside Omegas they had with them were practically in the laps of the Alphas they were sitting with. Jay had one of them, his face turned into the boy's shoulder to laugh, and the other girl was leaning back against her Alpha and crooning something at him, a deep, ragged mated mark on display on her neck.

Marvin was on the other side of the group, sitting next to a big Alpha with a popped collar and too much cologne. The big man's arm was wrapped around the Omega's waist to keep him sitting there, a finger hooked into the belt loop of his pants, even though Marvin didn't look like he was eager to go anywhere. The Omega had one leg tucked up under him, a winning smile on his face as he looked at the guy with bright blue eyes, but Anti could taste something just bordering on discomfort there, and he stepped up without hesitation.

Before he could even open his mouth, Jay was yelling from behind him.

"Hey, hey, Sam, be careful," he called, his words slurred and spoken around laughter as the boy in his lap nuzzled up under his chin. "He- Anti'll- he'll magic your Omega right out of your lap, I'm tellin' you . . ."

Something prickled along Anti's spine, but he smiled as the big guy turned his eyes up to the pricker.

"Nahhhh, he won't," 'Sam' said, grinning sloppily, and fuck, this guy was really drunk, wasn't he? "Will ya?"

Anti shrugged. "Nah, I'm just comin' to check on yeh. Make sure everything's alright, the entertainment's good, the drink's are better, you know."

"Oh, the entertainment's great," he grinned, tugging Marvin until he was half in his lap, and Anti caught eyes with the Omega for a moment, asking without asking.

"Yeah?" he asked, casual and careful. "You behaving Mav?"

Marvin shrugged. "Doing my best. These guys are great," he turned to grin back at the big Alpha behind him before glancing back up at Anti. "Gonna be a real shame when I have to get up here in a minute to get dressed for the next performance."

_He wants out_ , Anti caught immediately, and his eyes tracked quickly over the group, counting and organizing where everyone was as he tried to work on a game plan. "Yeah, it's always a shame-" he started, but the big guy cut him off.

"No, no, no," Sam slurred, waving a hand vaguely and tugging Marvin closer. "No, no, someone else can do the performance or whatever. You're busy."

"Oh, please," Marvin whined, turning to put his hand over the guy's collarbone and giving him what Anti always thought of as puppy-dog eyes. "I've been practicing for weeks, Sam. Don't you want to see?"

The Alpha seemed confused for a moment, and Anti did his best not to move, waiting quietly as he let Marvin try to weasel his way out of this. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to help much with subtlety just then, especially not with Jay having already thrown out a warning to the group.

"I wanna show you," Marvin continued, his lip jutting out in some fake petulance, and he slid his hand under the open collar of the guy's shirt, playing with the buttons. "Won't you let me?"

Movement caught Anti's eye, and he glanced to the side to watch one of the Betas in the group shift closer, legs tensing up and eyes fixed on them. And Anti felt his gut drop out as he looked around the group again and realized he was looking at a pack.

At least six strong, maybe seven but he couldn't smell the last Beta well enough. The only ones who didn't seem to actually be a part off it were Jay and his Omega friend, and Marvin.

And that made this so much worse. A group of friends could be annoying to extract an Omega from. A pack probably wasn't going to happen without a fight. And Anti wasn't excited about his odds with these guys. Especially with that big fucker.

He was the dangerous kind of big.

Marvin managed to slip out of the Alpha's lap, and Anti tried not to hold his breath, waiting carefully as Sam reached up to catch his wrists.

"No, no, you can show me at my place," Sam insisted, trying to tug him back.

"You don't have the lights at your place."

"You-" he started, and then frowned, the alcohol slowing him for a moment as he closed his eyes, and then shook his head. "No, no, no, 'cause you're not gonna come back to me."

"I'll come back," Marvin promised, leaning down to nuzzle against the big Alpha's face. "I just have to go real quick. You won't even notice I'm gone."

"You gotta come back," Sam mumbled.

And then he turned, shifting into the sweet space in the crook of Marvin's neck, and Anti knew what was about to happen before he even saw the flash of teeth. He had a brief, single moment to think _fuck_ followed immediately by _this is gonna suck_ before he launched himself at the pair, shoving Marvin unceremoniously away from the teeth about to sink into his mating glands.

Chaos erupted immediately. There were hands on his back almost straight away, clutching at his shirt to try to drag him off of the Alpha, and Anti kicked back without thought, catching someone in the shins as he worked to pin Sam, who was still clutching at Marvin's wrists. The scent of alarmed Omega and enraged Alpha hit him like a brick wall, and he curled his lip back and _snarled_ , baring teeth he was more than prepared to sink into the man.

A hand managed to wrap around his throat from behind him, quickly turning into an arm that hauled him off of the couch, and Anti turned on the assailant, bringing his fist up sharply under the Beta's jaw while he had the room, and shoving them harshly away as their grip loosened. Someone was yelling, an angry drunk voice, and Anti was back on Sam immediately, wrenching Marvin away from him and shoving the Omega over the back of the couch before there were hands on him again, and Anti was dragged back into the group.

A knee caught him in the stomach and he doubled over, hand over his face to catch the second knee that tried to crack over his nose. Someone was clawing at the back of his neck, trying to catch his nape and force him down into submission, and Anti swung an elbow back into them, relishing the sharp _oof_ he got when it connected.

And then he caught the scent of blood under the fight, the hint of spearmint that meant it was Marvin's, and something primal and panicked rose up in his throat. He found one of the arms on him, yanking it towards him and sinking his teeth sharply into the ball of the shoulder he found. Someone screeched, an unflattering sound as blood welled up under Anti's teeth, and he kicked out again, booted foot finding flesh, sending someone to their knees, and Anti used them to drag himself back up.

Jay and his Omega had backed out of the fight, Jay's arm thrown protectively over the boy as he bared his teeth at the fighting group. There was a Beta on his knees at Anti's feet, making some wounded noise, and the other Alpha snarling at the blood dripping from his shoulder. The couch was empty, and that primal scream was clawing at his throat again as he spun on his heel, looking for Marvin.

What he found was Dark.

The Alpha was on his knees over Sam, teeth bared and fist wrapped tightly around his throat, a snarl ripping out of his chest. Marvin was next to them, struggling up onto his knees and having to kick out as Sam grabbed at his ankle again, and Anti wanted to be there, now, sinking his teeth into that bastard until he yielded and cried and had to beg Anti to stop.

Someone grabbed at Anti again, yanking him back with surprising force, but something was loosening in Anti's chest at the realization that he wasn't alone in the fight. He got one more glimpse of Dark, mouth open around a snarl, before he was yanked back down, and he was too busy fighting to focus on them anymore.

It had been a long time since he'd had a fight this bad. His ribs ached, his lip was split, and his knee screamed every time he moved it after a foot came down sharply on it. But there was something deeply, viscerally satisfying in that. The pain seemed to burn that Alpha core in him that much stronger, and he snarled and spit as he brought his fist down on someone, once, twice, feeling them yield and landing one more before he released them and turned on the next.

By the time he had the other Alpha on the ground under him, shuddering into a limp submission as Anti's teeth bit sharper into the nape of his neck, he was completely riding a high. Something feral and instinctual thrumming deep in his veins, and it itched at him to keep going, keep fighting, keep winning. Prove he was the best with teeth and fists and that righteous kind of rage.

If it wasn't for the faint scent of Omega blood still in the air, Anti might have listened to that urge. As it was, the moment the Alpha under him went limp, he was on his feet again, spinning to find Marvin, and feeling the air rush out of him when he saw him.

The Omega was tucked into a corner, hand plastered over his shoulder and face twisted up in discomfort. Anti couldn't see any blood, but he knew there was a bite there, and he knew it had bled, something that made his fingers itch to remove whatever had made that mark with blunt force. But the fear coming off the Omega was mild, gentle, and there wasn't any true pain mixed in. He smelled safe.

And it was obvious why. Standing in front of the Omega, jacket missing and hair in a disheveled mess, stood Dark. And _fuck_ , was he sight.

The Alpha's shirt had droplets of blood down one arm, smeared and messy, leading down to a fist who's knuckles were raw. He was breathing hard, lip still curled back to snarl at Sam, who was being dragged off by one of the bouncers, and there was a feral kind of danger to that face as he looked out over the small crowd around them, like he was waiting for the next opponent to step up.

Something complicated twisted through Anti's stomach at the sight. At Marvin tucked against the wall, hurt but safe, and Dark guarding him like a dog, teeth out and hackles up. It was- it was good, it was a good feeling, it was one he liked, one that kicked his feet forward, sent him in a beeline right to Marvin.

He didn't even hesitate to step past Dark. The Alpha's eyes darted to him, pupils blown wide, and Anti could taste the richness of his scent this close, and then he was focused on the Omega, and Dark didn't exist.

"Marvin," he said roughly, hunching down to reach out towards him and giving him a moment to register his presence first. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Marvin said, but the words were obviously on autopilot, and Anti placed a hand gently over the bite on his shoulder.

"Let me see," he murmured, and the Omega did without hesitation, his eyes glazing over and his shoulders slumping.

_Too close to heat_ , Anti realized. _Too close to heat, deep bite, Alpha's fighting for him_. Anti was almost surprised he could stand right then, and he looked around them, scanning the crowd as he gauged the distance to the backroom. He could see Chase pushing through the crowd, there was another bouncer holding one of the pack members back by the couches, and there was an excited scent in the air as the club-goers shifted to try to get better looks.

"Help me get him to the backroom," Anti said to Dark, pointing towards the door near the bar. Dark nodded, shifting back to let Anti lead them into the crowd, keeping the shivering Omega between them.

Chase reached them just as they made it to the door, and Anti could see the way he went pale as he got a better look at Marvin.

"Chase, go get the medicine bag," he said sharply before the Beta could speak. Chase snapped to look up at him, mouth opening briefly, before he turned on his heel and darted off for the first aid kit.

Anti urged Marvin into the room, leading him to sit on the same couch they'd been scenting on just last week. The Omega blinked up at him, brow pulling forward in momentary confusion before he seemed to actually see him properly.

"You back with me?" Anti asked, hooking a finger under Marvin's chin to get a better look at him.

"Yeah," Marvin said, this time his voice croaking slightly. "Yeah, I'm, uh. I here, I'm with it."

"Are you hurt anywhere besides the bite?"

Marvin's hand reached up to cover the bite again, eyes widening and mouth opening for a moment before he cracked an awkward smile. "I, uh," he started, pausing to laugh nervously. "No, I think- I think that's it. It's, uh- how close is it?"

"He missed," Anti said immediately, plucking Marvin's hand up to look at the teeth marks embedded in his shoulder. "Mostly just got shoulder, it's not close to your gland."

Marvin swallowed and nodded, turning his head into Anti's hand, and suddenly all Anti wanted to do was crawl onto the couch with him and ignore everything else until his wintergreen scent mellowed out again.

"Anti," someone called, and Anti turned to find Schneep leaning in the doorway, his eyes going to Marvin immediately. "He is okay?"

"He's good," Anti said, carding his fingers through the Omega's hair to give him something. "Bite, but no mark. Chase is getting the med bag."

The German nodded. "And you?"

"I'm fine. I can handle this, you go deal with that mess."

Schneep's lips thinned, but he turned to leave, only to pause as he noticed Dark.

"He helped," Anti said without looking away from Marvin. "He stays."

He could hear Schneep hesitate, but someone yelled something out the door, and he cursed under his breath and left, leaving the three of them alone for a heartbeat before Chase came skidding back into the room.

"Here," he said, mildly breathless as passed the little red bag off to Anti.

"I'm fine," Marvin piped up, wincing a little as he stretched his shoulder and tried to stand. Anti pushed him firmly back onto the couch.

"OSHA rules, you get first aid," Anti snipped, ripping open a disinfectant wipe, and Marvin snorted weakly.

"Nice excuse."

"If the OSHA regulations weren't there, I'd just have someone hold you down."

"My hero," Marvin scoffed, rolling his eyes, but smiling, something a little steadier in his breathing as Anti cleaned around the bite.

"Shouldn't he go to the hospital?" Chase asked, working his headphone line back up to his ear.

"Only if he wants to," Anti answered, shrugging. "They don't need stitches, I don't think. You comfortable going to the hospital, Mav?"

Marvin was shaking his head before Anti finished, and Anti huffed as he reached for a bandage.

"Alright, first aid, and then you go home."

Marvin looked up sharply. "I don't need to-"

"You can't work with an open wound."

"Well, no, if you wrap it up first it's fine."

"You really want to work tonight, Mav?"

Marvin looked up at him searchingly, tucking his bottom lip into his teeth, before he made a soft, defeated noise.

"No. I guess I don't."

"You should go home," Chase agreed, flipping his hat off as Marvin looked up at him and tucking it backwards over the Omega's hair. "It's gonna be shitty the rest of the night, and that's gonna ache."

"Yeah," Marvin grumbled, tugging the hat farther down onto his head before looking up at Chase hopefully. "Can you take me home?"

The Beta hesitated, and Anti rolled his eyes, digging in his pocket for his keys. "Hey," he snapped, and Chase looked up just in time to catch the key he tossed him. "Back right, the black Chevy. Do not wreck it."

"Oh," Chase said, staring down at the key like Anti had just tossed him a wedding ring.

"Where's _your_ car?" Marvin asked the Beta, confused.

"It's, uh . . . it's been a bit of a night all around," Chase laughed nervously. And then, when Marvin continued to look at him with concern, "I'll tell you about it on the ride."

"You're done, by the way," Anti said, wiping a hand over the edge of the bandage.

"Oh," Marvin said, reaching up to touch his covered wound. "Thank you."

"Probably gonna have to change that in the morning."

"I mean it," Marvin pushed, reaching up to tug gently at Anti's shirt. "Thank you. For all of that."

"Literally my job, Marvin."

The Omega narrowed his eyes at him, lip thinning down to an unamused point, before he glanced past him.

"It's not his, though."

Anti felt a weird little jolt in his stomach at that. It wasn't that he'd forgotten Dark was there, just that he hadn't been thinking about him. The Irishman turned back to glance at him, focusing on the other Alpha for the first time properly after the fight, and realizing he'd gotten out of it cleaner than Anti had.

The blood on his shirt didn't even look like his.

Dark smiled something tight and careful at Marvin, dipping his head just slightly in return. "My pleasure," he said simply, and Marvin made a little face, like he was trying not to say something, and Anti resisted the urge to kick him.

"Okay, home, go, now," he said, offering Marvin a hand up before handing him off to Chase. "Do not wreck my car. Do not do anything stupid-"

"Do not pass go, do not collect $200," Marvin finished, grinning back at the Alpha, and Anti bared his teeth back.

"I mean it, either of you end up more hurt, and I'll personally build you a padded jail cell."

"Either of us?" Marvin asked.

" _Go_."

Chase ducked his head like he was the one in trouble, catching Marvin by the wrist and dragging the giggling Omega out before he could do any more damage.

As soon as they were gone, Anti let out a deep-throated groan, and flopped back onto the couch, spreading his arms out along the back and closing his eyes. His blood was still pumping, adrenaline and hormones singing under his skin, and he blew out a long, slow breath as he tried to get it back under control. The scent of needy Omega clung to the couch, Alpha and Beta blood clung to his hands, and the only living scent in the room now was Dark, who smelled-

Did he always smell that good? Or was it the fight that did it?

He could hear the other Alpha stepping closer, slowly, but he didn't open his eyes. He was too busy taking a moment to enjoy the singing in his skin, the way he could feel every breath he took, the way he could take apart Dark's scent piece by piece. The gunsmoke scent had moved closer to woodsmoke, earthier, sharper, the spice intertwined with it instead of sitting over it, and Anti could pick out the adrenaline, the Alpha musk, the echo of the rush Anti was still riding out himself.

Dark's fingers touched his face, and Anti flinched at that, jerking back for a moment as he looked up at the Alpha in confusion. Dark's eyes traced over his face, hand hovering for a long moment, before he reached forward again to get a grip on Anti's chin, like Anti had done to Marvin minutes before, and this time Anti let him, turning his head as Dark put pressure on him to do so.

"You should probably take care of yourself as well," Dark rumbled, and Anti shrugged, sinking further back into the couch with eyes half-lidded.

"Why?" he asked lazily, tilting his head back further as Dark moved him. "Nothing to do for a split lip. The rest's just bruising."

"You have a cut here," Dark told him lowly, brushing his thumb just under a spot on Anti's cheek that ached and stung alike. Anti felt weirdly like he should close his eyes.

"Is it still bleeding?"

"No."

"Then leave it. It'll heal."

"Hm," Dark hummed, his hand slipping down to Anti's neck, thumb hooking under his jaw to move his head the other way, and Anti realized absently that he'd spread his legs to let Dark step closer.

"Thanks, by the way," he managed a minute later, surfacing from the pleasant thrum of the fight high to unstick his tongue. "That would have sucked a lot more without you."

"Mm," Dark agreed.

"And Marvin probably would have come out of that much worse."

Dark didn't respond to that, just shifted his hand lower, pressing carefully over Anti's collarbones, and Anti noticed he had both hands on him now, pressing along his skin carefully, like he was making a map.

"You're touching me a lot," Anti pointed out, still not making any move to stop him.

Dark's mouth quirked up, but his eyes stayed on the steady path his hands were making. "You've done very little in the way of discouraging me," he said quietly, and Anti laughed, sharply, sending a spike of pain up through his ribs.

"Hah, ah, ah, don't make me laugh," he said, grinning even as he hissed in a breath.

Dark's brow creased in a frown, and his hand traced down Anti's side, pressing along his ribs until Anti hissed again.

"Stop it," he complained, shoving his hand away and letting it land on the couch behind him. "I know what a broken rib feels like. It's just bruised."

Dark didn't move for a long moment, and it took Anti a while to realize how close he was now. He'd shifted his weight to be held up on the hand Anti had shoved, leaving him leaning over the Alpha, hair falling in a mess inches from Anti's face.

_Damn, he smells nice._

The thought wasn't as startling as it had been before. Not with the thrum still running through his bloodstream, Dark's other hand still laid carefully over his collarbone, Dark's eyes down on his ribs instead of his own. He did that a lot, didn't he? Looked at him without looking him in the eye? Had he always done it, or had he realized at some point that Anti didn't like eye contact?

How careful was he?

What was he like when he wasn't being careful?

Anti closed his eyes after another moment, giving into the little urge and tilting his head back, stretching until his back popped. The ache in his muscles felt good, the little breath Dark took even better.

"I need to find more excuses for you teh fight," Anti sighed, eyes still closed.

Dark was quiet for a moment before he asked, "Why?"

"You look good fighting," Anti said easily, opening his eyes and grinning at the other man. His eyes flickered down, finding the open collar, the missing tie, the blood speckled along the white fabric. "And apparently it gets yeh outta yer suit."

Dark's face did something funny, mouth pulling down like he had only just realized he was missing his suit jacket, and Anti laughed when he tried to lean back.

He snapped his knees together when he realized how far back he was trying to go, catching one of the Alpha's legs before he could escape.

"I'm serious," Anti said, finally leaning up and grinning at the other man. "This look?" He reached up to run his hands over the crisp shirt, just above where it was tucked into his pants at his hips. "I'm diggin' it."

Dark didn't fight his grip, or try to pull away, and Anti took a moment just to enjoy the heat under his hands, the steady rise and fall of Dark's chest as he breathed, the way his stomach tensed when Anti's thumbs brushed over it. _This isn't so bad_ , he thought idly. _This isn't so different._

He was bigger, yeah. There was more to him, more muscle, more mass, more heat coming off him in thick waves. The scent under his tongue was stronger, more oppressive, and it kicked something higher in that primal place at the base of his skull. But it wasn't _bad_.

His hands ran up to Dark's chest, flattening over the planes of his pecs, and then up to his collarbone, his throat, a mimicry of Dark's own exploration. His fingers brushed over the stubble along his jaw, felt his throat move as he swallowed, and ran back down to tug at his collar.

Dark caught his wrist when he popped the top shirt button, and Anti laughed, letting himself fall limp against the couch again in defeat.

Dark didn't release his wrist.

"You're at work."

Anti snorted. "That's never stopped you before."

"Mm," Dark hummed. He turned Anti's wrist in his hand, baring the underside where he could see the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. "You're also still on a high."

Anti took a long breath in and let it out slowly. "Yeah, alright. That's fair," he sighed, tilting his head back against the couch again and closing his eyes.

Dark's thumb brushed over the inside of his wrist, holding there for a moment like he was counting his heartbeats, before he made a low, considering sound.

"Would it be . . . presumptuous to ask if you have a ride home?" he asked. Carefully. Lightly. Anti's breath stuttered and he laughed.

"I could just get a Lyft," he said, matching Dark's tone, and Dark hummed.

"You could."

"Or?"

"Or," Dark continued, turning Anti's wrist back the other way and keeping his eyes there. "I could give you a ride."

"My shift doesn't end for hours yet," Anti pointed out, grinning.

"I wouldn't have offered if I minded."

"Mm," Anti hummed back, laying his head against the couch and staring up at the ceiling for a few long considering moments. "I bet my Lyft driver wouldn't offer me dinner."

"I doubt it," came the rumbled response, and Anti grinned, a surprised kind of laugh catching in his throat. He closed his eyes, taking in another deep breath of smoke and spice and interest, and let it sit on his tongue until something stirred in his stomach.

"Okay," he said finally. "Yeah, Dark. I'll take a ride home."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm barely alive on tumblr, but you can [check me out there](https://poem-is-dead.tumblr.com/) if you want.
> 
> **In regards to my other works:** yes, everything is still being worked on. Unfortunately I've hit such a rut in writing them that they're almost like an anxiety thing for me at this point? I'm really hoping that posting something again can kickstart me back into writing consistently, like the fabled years of old . . .


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